Vampire and zombie stories have been around since recorded history but haven’t become mainstream until the early 18th century. These types of stories in recent times have become popular pop culture in our society. Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, and James Parker have capitalized on this reality by writing their short stories, “Vampires Never Die” and “Our Zombies, Ourselves”. I will be comparing these two stories for distinct similarities and differences and evaluating the subject matter for convincing details, both negative and positive. Del Toro, Hogan, and Parker have embraced modern horror culture by writing about two of the most prolific mythical figures of all time: the vampire and the zombie. Del Toro and Hogan starting their short…show more content… It seems Parker has an affinity for the zombie and is quite passionate in his words to describe the figure. Parker enjoys including analogies and clichés in his works, in fact, he states in a 2009 column for the Boston Globe, “Who will say a good word for the cliché? Its sins are so numerous” (Kennedy et al. 347). This mindset of writing goes against everything that is taught in the writing process. Rob Hart, a class director at LitReactor (a website created for online writing classes), has been quoted as saying, “Cliché is the enemy of good writing”. I don’t agree with Mr. Hart’s opinion and I’m willing to bet Mr. Parker doesn’t either. Del Toro and Hogan’s writing method seemed to be more persuasive to the reader. Convincing us that the vampire was born out of the sheer resentment of one person for the other. Like many monster stories, humans have always been fascinated with the mysterious and the unknown. The vampire, according to del Toro and Hogan, has thrived in our “technological revolution” of a culture (Kennedy et al. 337). The appeal of a mysterious figure with life eternal surviving in our conventional and mundane